Energy Access Seen as Vital to Abolishing Worst Poverty

By DAVID JOLLY
Published: September 21, 2010, NYTimes.com

"In a report prepared for the United Nations Millennium Development Goals meeting in New York, the agency said the goal of eradicating extreme poverty by 2015 would be possible only if an additional 395 million people obtained access to electricity and one billion gained access to more modern cooking facilities that minimize harmful smoke in the next few years.

“Without electricity, social and economic development is much more difficult,” Fatih Birol, the energy agency’s chief economist, said by telephone. “Addressing sanitation, clean water, hunger — these goals can’t be met without providing access to energy.”

...and poverty breeds crime and recruits for terrorism (opinion of blogger).

See: NY Times Business Article and comments.